


A Christmas Mystery

by LancashireGirl



Category: Thunderbirds
Genre: Gen, Mystery, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-13
Updated: 2014-12-31
Packaged: 2018-02-25 06:48:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 14,599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2612237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LancashireGirl/pseuds/LancashireGirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tintin is confused by an email regarding an addition to her Christmas order. This is my first ever story for Thunderbirds and AO3. Please let me know what you think and whether I should continue. Thanks.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Tintin stared at the computer, her email account on the screen. She blinked and read, again, the email that had caused her some confusion.  
Dear Miss Kyrano,  
Thank you for your last communication regarding your order with our company. The item you requested to be added to your order has been processed and should arrive with the items of your original order.  
May we take this opportunity to thank you for your continued custom with our company.  
Merry Christmas  
Dave from the orders department

No, thought Tintin to herself, I still don’t understand. I didn't order anything extra.  
The email was from the company that delivered everything that the inhabitants of Tracy Island needed or wanted for Christmas, with the exception of presents. Every year Tintin would check over the previous year’s order, consult with everyone on the island and sent in the order in mid November. She never needed to go back and order anything forgotten and this year was no exception.  
So why does it seem like I have? She thought to herself.  
Minimising the window with the email on it, she opened the document with the Christmas list and read it thoroughly. No, nothing was missing. She thought back to her conversations with Mr Tracy, her father and Grandma, and no, she hadn't missed anything that they had asked for.  
The boys hadn't asked for anything specific. This year they hadn't even tried to get her to order extra food liked they usually tried to, as if she wasn't already ordering enough.  
No, she had ordered everything she had needed to. So why had she received this email saying something has been added? Then it struck her. The email had said she had contacted them asking for something else. Well quite simply put, she hadn't. She opened up her email account again and went to the sent folder. The only email she could find from herself to the company was her original order she had sent two weeks ago. Maybe it was a glitch in their software. Maybe it was a different person’s order that needed to be amended. She needed to email the company to inform them of their mistake so they could rectify it in time. She quickly typed out the email and went to check whether Grandma needed any help with lunch.  
Later that evening, whilst she was waiting for the boys to return from the latest rescue, she checked her emails again.  
Dear Miss Kyrano,  
I apologise at causing some confusion with my last email. The additional order was received over the telephone by myself. The gentleman I spoke to had all the available information needed, order numbers and address so I processed the order as I saw nothing amiss. If this is not the case then I apologise unreservedly. I have attached a copy of your order with the additional item highlighted. If you wish for this item to be removed please don’t hesitate to let us know.  
Merry Christmas  
Dave from the orders department  
Now Tintin was really confused. The extra order appeared to have come from the island. The order numbers for the delivery were easily found and in no way hidden. The clue of a gentleman’s voice only ruled out Grandma. Tintin lived with eight men, well eight if you counted John up in the space station and Tintin wasn't sure if he could phone anyone up there so she could probably rule him out as well, but that still left seven. It could have been something her father or Mr Tracy had forgotten to ask her for or it could be something to do with part of a Christmas prank organised by Gordon.  
Deciding she’d better check it wasn't the latter she opened the attachment file and scrolled down to where the additional item was highlighted and took in a sharp breath.  
Additional item: - Mistletoe  
Well now she didn't know what to think!


	2. Chapter 2

I just don’t understand, thought Tintin. Of all the things she had thought could have been added to the Christmas order mistletoe hadn’t even crossed her mind. She just couldn’t think who would want it.   
If anything, she would. She lived on an island with seven men, six of whom were not related to her and five of them were roughly the same age as her. If anyone had any reason to order mistletoe it’s me, she thought.   
Tintin had always thought that mistletoe was very romantic and loved the idea of being able to claim kisses from the person you particularly liked. Tintin had always enjoyed the excitement of the run up to Christmas. But during university she had especially liked the almost military operation she and her friends would go through in order to get under the mistletoe with the guys she liked and avoid those she didn’t. Yes Tintin did love mistletoe.  
But she hadn’t ordered any, someone else had. Tintin couldn’t help but wonder who and more importantly why. So the question was who wanted to kiss who?  
She knew that whoever had ordered it had been male and since she hadn’t noticed any same sex tendencies amongst the inhabitants of Tracy Island, she could only deduce that the intended target was a woman.  
However, the only women on the island were Grandma and herself. Tintin didn’t think it likely that the mistletoe was meant for Grandma, in the seven men that lived there five of them were related to her and Tintin didn’t really see Brains or her father wanting to kiss Grandma under mistletoe.  
But then Tintin realised she had forgotten someone. Lady Penelope and Parker usually came to the island for Christmas. Maybe the mistletoe was intended for Penelope?   
Now if that was true then Tintin could maybe try and work out who had ordered it. Tintin thought about it, well she could probably rule out her father and she couldn’t see Brains wanting to kiss Penelope and could defiantly not see him ordering mistletoe in order to do so.  
But Tintin couldn’t narrow it down any further. It could be any of the other five, even Mr Tracy, they were all very fond of Penelope and any one of them could have developed deeper feelings towards her.  
The only flaw in her theory was that she didn’t know whether Penelope was actually coming to Tracy Island for Christmas this year or not.  
Tintin stopped pacing, which she had started doing whilst thinking, and walked out of her room and towards the lounge area where she knew she would find Mr Tracy and sure enough she did.  
“Oh, hi Tintin. Were you after some coffee? I’m afraid I’ve drunk it all,” Jeff Tracy said peering at the remaining dregs of coffee in his mug.  
“Oh no Mr Tracy, I’m not looking for coffee. I was just wondering if I could ask you something about Christmas?”  
“Certainly, what is it you would like to know?”  
“Are Lady Penelope and Parker coming this year?”  
“No they aren’t, not this year. Which is a shame, it’s always quite fun watching your father and Parker argue over who does what,” Jeff laughed, “why do you ask?”  
“Oh! I just thought they would be coming, as they usually do,” Tintin replied.  
“I think they’re going to some distant relatives of Penny’s or something. It looks like it’s just you, me, your father, my mother, Brains and the boys, well except John as it’s his turn in Thunderbird 5 this year. It should be fun. Still it’s a shame about Penny not being able to make it.”  
“Yes it is. Does anyone else know that they aren’t coming?”  
“I’ve no idea. I haven’t specifically told anyone but you, but then again no one else has asked.”  
“Oh, ok. I just wondered that’s all.”  
“That’s ok. The boys should be back soon. I think Thunderbird 1 may need its GPS unit looked at, Scott reported a couple of glitches with the co ordinate positioning. Nothing too serious but it should probably be looked to prevent a future problem.”  
“Certainly Mr Tracy, as soon as I’m able to I’ll have a look at it.”  
Tintin wandered back to her room. So Penelope isn’t coming but the boys don’t know. She was able to eliminate Mr Tracy from the mystery but that still left four of them.  
“I wonder how I could find out which one wanted to kiss her,” Tintin said to herself.


	3. Chapter 3

Tintin was still contemplating the mystery of the mistletoe the next morning as she was performing diagnostic tests on the GPS system in the cockpit of Thunderbird 1.  
Who could it be? She thought to herself for what felt like the hundredth time that morning. She had managed to narrow it down to just Scott, Virgil, Gordon or Alan, but couldn’t seem to narrow it down any further.  
She had watched them all carefully last night when they had returned from the rescue but couldn’t detect any obvious difference in any of them. But then again, they probably don’t know that Penelope isn’t coming. Maybe that was the answer to her mystery. If she could find some way of telling each one of them that Penelope wasn’t coming for Christmas and watched to see which one of the reacted in an unusual way, then she would have her answer. She just had to think of a way to get it into her conversations with them without it seeming strange.  
The machine she was holding bleeped indicating that the results she was waiting for were ready.  
“And that’s another mystery,” she said out loud to herself, “there’s seemingly nothing wrong with the GPS.”  
“Another mystery Tintin? What’s the other one?” Tintin spun round, startled as she thought she was alone. Scott was there, leaning next to the door.   
“Oh, hi Scott. I didn’t hear you come in. Is everything ok?” Tintin replied, sidestepping his question.   
Tintin realised that she hadn’t looked away from the GPS unit for a long time so he could have been standing there for a while. He was generally very quiet and could sneak up on people silently if he wanted. Plus Tintin had been distracted with the GPS and her mistletoe mystery. In the back of her mind she wondered just how long he had been there before he spoke.  
“Yes, everything is good. I just thought I’d come and give you a hand fixing the GPS, if you needed it.”  
“Oh, that’s very kind of you. I’m still trying to work out what’s wrong with it. Every test I run comes back normal. It looks like there is nothing wrong with it. You had issues with it yesterday, right?”   
“Yes I did. The co ordinates were slightly off, nothing too major but it did make flying to and from the danger zone a little tricky as I couldn’t be completely sure of where I was.”  
“Ok. I’ll continue running tests and let you know what I discover,” Tintin made to turn back to the unit.  
“I can give you a hand with the tests if you like, Tintin?” Scott said moving closer to her.  
“Erm, ok. Sure that would be great,” Tintin couldn’t quite put her finger on it but Scott seemed a bit different. Maybe he’d ordered the mistletoe. This could be the perfect opportunity to ask him if he knew that Penelope wasn’t coming.  
“Ok, great. What are we testing next?”  
“Well I’ve run all the electronic tests I can and have found no fault at all.”  
“Ok. Could your equipment be faulty?”  
“It’s unlikely that all of it is but in a situation like this where a fault has been reported if it doesn’t show up on the computers when we perform a scan the next thing we do is manually try to find the fault.”  
“Manually?”  
“Yes Scott that means the next step is to dismantle it and check each component separately for any faults!”  
“Doesn’t that take forever to do?”  
“Yes but it needs doing. Cutting corners here is just not acceptable. Brains and I couldn’t live with ourselves if we hadn’t thoroughly checked everything and something happened to any of you on a rescue because a component had failed. We do it on a regular basis. This is the fourth time since September that I’ve had to dismantle this GPS unit!”  
Scott laughed softly at her last statement.  
“Ok Tintin you’ve convinced me. Only you’re going to have to excuse my lack of knowledge when it comes to the inner workings of a GPS unit!”  
“That’s ok. It will be useful to have an extra pair of hands for all the heavy lifting!”  
“Heavy lifting?!”  
As they started to dismantle the unit Tintin found herself beginning to explain what each part of the GPS unit did whilst she checked if for faults. She had half expected Scott to get bored and think of an excuse to leave but he didn’t. He had insisted that he’d do all the unscrewing of bolts and screws as well as insisting on pulling out and lifting all the electronic panels for Tintin to inspect. Tintin mildly protested that she was perfectly capably to do this for herself to which Scott replied that he knew she was very capably but it was making him feel useful and less like he was just getting in her way, so she let him get away with it.  
Soon the conversation moved on to more everyday topics and Tintin saw her chance to subtly ask him if he knew anything about the mistletoe.  
“Are you looking forward to Christmas Scott?”  
“Yeah I am it should be great. It always is. I always enjoy Christmas, even on a tropical island where it doesn’t snow.”  
“Well unless Brains has anything up his sleeve again!”  
“Well you never know with Brains do you? What about you? Are you looking forward to Christmas?”  
“Yes I am,” Tintin thought it’s now or never, “I’m just a bit sad the Lady Penelope and Parker aren’t coming this year.”  
“Are they not coming? Oh that’s a shame but never mind I’m sure Christmas will still be good,” Scott replied.  
Tintin studied his face intently but covertly to see if she could detect any deeper feelings in his words. She couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Either he was better at hiding his feelings than Tintin thought or Scott really didn’t have any plans for Penelope and mistletoe.  
During this conversation Tintin had inspected the last circuit that needed checking.  
“No, nothing wrong with this one too I’m sure of it. There really doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with it.”  
“What’s the plan now?”  
“I’ll ask Brains about it. He may want you to take a test flight later to double check it.”  
“Maybe I imagined it?”  
“Maybe, but it’s better to check it out. It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve had to dismantle something on the imagining of one of you!”  
“What do you mean?”  
“Well Alan tends to think he’s found faults in Thunderbird 3 all the time. Almost all of them end up being false alarms. He’s always very helpful though, assisting me like you have this morning.”  
“What even taking over the heavy lifting?!”  
“Yes Alan is very helpful in that respect, you all are. You all seem to forget I am stronger than I look. But it’s always nice to have company when you are doing a particularly long task. I always enjoy time spent with Alan checking Thunderbird 3’s components and today has been lovely too, so thank you Scott.”  
“You’re very welcome, I’m just sorry that it may have been a wild goose chase. Well should we get all this back together before you go and talk to Brains?”  
“Yes we should.”  
Tintin moved her right arm over to her face to brush some hair away that had fallen into her eyes. Suddenly and without warning Scott grabbed her wrist. She was about to ask what on earth he was doing when she saw that he was looking very intently at her arm.  
“Tintin what is this on your arm?” Scott demanded still holding onto her arm.  
“What’s what? Let go of my wrist and I’ll tell you.”  
Scott immediately relaxed his grip on Tintin’s wrist and she twisted her arm to see what it was that had caused such a strong reaction from him.  
“You mean this?” she asked pointing to a red mark on her arm the size of a large finger.  
Scott nodded.  
“It’s a burn mark.”  
“From where?”  
“Erm, Thunderbird 3.”  
“How did you burn yourself in Thunderbird 3? When you were dismantling things with Alan?”  
“No, when I was passed out after we rescued the Sun Probe. My arm ended up resting on one of the levers of the console I was operating. What with moving ever nearer to the sun everything was heating up, especially metal levers. After the two hours my arm was pressed against rapidly heating metal I’m not surprised it got burnt.”  
“I can’t believe I didn’t notice. Did Alan know?”  
“Yes, when he woke me up he made sure I got something cold on it.”  
“Why didn’t you mention it when we got back to the island?”  
“Well it’s not really that serious. It’s not that big or deep. It’s healing well and I probably won’t even scar. I forget it’s there most of the time.”  
“I still wished you had said something Tintin. I know you don’t think it’s serious but I do. Even small injuries can be a cause for serious concern.”  
“Well if it makes you feel any better Brains and myself have changed all metal levers in Thunderbird 3 to a different material which is just as strong but won’t heat up quite as quickly.”  
“Well that does make me feel slightly better but make sure you tell me next time.”  
“Will do Scott. Now are you going to help me put this thing back together or not?”  
Scott helped Tintin reassemble the GPS unit and then went off to help Virgil install some new equipment in Thunderbird 2. Once he had gone Tintin thought over her conversation with the oldest Tracy brother. He didn’t react about Penelope not coming for Christmas is any way to make her believe that he had ordered the mistletoe in order to kiss Penelope but he was acting differently Tintin thought. He had never gone looking for her to help her with her job before and he had never reacted that severely to her getting injured in the line of duty before.  
So if it wasn’t disappointment about Penelope what was it that was causing Scott to behave in the way he was?  
Tintin had yet another mystery to add to her list.


	4. Chapter 4

After speaking to Brains about her examination of the GPS unit in Thunderbird 1, Tintin decided to call it a day. She double checked with Brains that he didn’t need her to do anything else and took herself off to the pool with her current book.  
Once sat by the pool she found she couldn’t concentrate on the story in her book, her ever growing list of mysteries wouldn’t let her. After reading the same page three times and still not taking any of it in, she decided to give up.  
She sat next to the pool and dangled her feet into it; leaning back she closed her eyes and revelled in the feeling of the sun on her face. Normally Tintin could do this for hours; she was affectionately referred to as ‘Tintin the Sun Worshipper’ by almost everyone on the island.   
Today, however, sunbathing just wasn’t going to distract her. She couldn’t help herself thinking about the mistletoe and Scott’s odd behaviour, but mainly it was still the mistletoe that had her thinking most of all.  
Who and why were the main questions. From her conversation with Scott she hadn’t actually gained enough insight to completely eliminate him but was almost convinced that if he had ordered the mistletoe it wasn’t for Penelope. But if it wasn’t for Penelope who was it for? Tintin herself?  
Tintin frowned slightly at that last thought. She thought it was very unlikely. Scott had never shown her any interest in the past but was that changing. He was behaving differently towards her but Tintin could sense that there was something beneath the differing behaviour that she couldn’t see and until she found out what it was Scott’s behaviour would remain a mystery.  
Tintin sat up and opened her eyes. She was beginning to feel restless. She wanted to do something but couldn’t figure out what that something could be. She pulled her feet out of the water and stood up. After a moments thought she decided to walk back up to the house and see if she could find something to occupy herself with. On her way up she bumped into Alan.  
“Hey Tintin what are you up to?” Alan greeted her with one of his grins that she couldn’t help mirroring.  
“Hi Alan, I’m trying to decide what I want to do with my afternoon.”  
“You mean simply lying in the sun is just not entertaining you today!? What! Surely not!” Tintin couldn’t help but laugh and the mock surprise in his voice.  
“Hey I don’t just sunbath all the time I do other things too!” Tintin laughed ruining her attempt at sounding annoyed.  
“Well if you are still looking for something to do latter Gordon and I have a little something planned that you could help us with!”  
“Why am I suddenly worried?” Alan laughed at Tintin’s question.  
“It’s nothing too bad!”  
“Well when you describe it as nothing too bad it normally indicated that it is indeed very bad. No, although it would be nice to be on the other side on one of yours and Gordon’s plans, I don’t think I want to risk being fired today!”  
“Dad would never fire you,” Alan replied, “he thinks you’re wonderful and would assume we had tricked you into taking part!”  
“Still, I don’t think I shall be taking any part in your plans today. But just remember you’ve told me something’s going to happen. So tell Gordon I know about it and whatever it is isn’t going to work on me!” Tintin started slowly moving towards the house again.  
“I’ll tell him Tintin,” Alan laughed and let her past him. Tintin had walked up a few more steps leading to the house when he called after her.  
“Hey Tintin,” she turned back towards him, “if you want something to do you could always bake me a cake!”  
Tintin rolled her eyes and turned away from him.  
“Nice try, Alan,” she called as she walked away. She could hear him chuckling to himself and what sounded like.  
“Well you can’t blame me for trying!”  
Tintin continued up the steps and into the house. She was walking towards the lounge and could hear the soft sounds of Virgil playing his piano.  
As she came nearer to the window and was just about able to see Virgil and his piano, the song he was playing seemed to change. Tintin stood for a second and listened. It sounded familiar but didn’t sound like anything Virgil usually played. She continued walking into the lounge.  
“Hi Tintin,” Virgil greeted.  
“Virgil, are you playing the latest Michelle and the Asteroids single?”  
“Ah, good you recognised it. I wasn’t sure I got the chorus right.”  
“Why are you playing it?”  
“Well I liked the challenge of recreating a song I’ve only heard a few times.”  
“But where have you heard it? It’s fairly new and you don’t really listen to the radio stations that play it.”  
“You’ve been singing it to yourself for about two weeks,” Virgil smiled at her.  
“Well of course I have, I really like it and it’s a good song. But how on earth can you recreate a song from me singing to myself?”  
“By listening to you closely.”  
“Oh, ok,” Tintin wondered just how closely he would have to listen to her to recreate a whole song, “so is that part of the challenge? You see if you could work out how the song goes from my awful rendition of it.”  
“Well that’s part of it. The other part is that I know you like it and thought it would be a good song to teach you.”  
“What do you mean?”  
“I thought I could teach you how to play the piano,” Virgil replied, moving slightly on the piano stool and indicated for her to sit next to him.  
Tintin’s eyebrows shot up in shock. Virgil was very protective of his piano No one dared touch it. Gordon treated it as a no prank zone and even his grandmother didn’t go neat it. Only he played it, the others didn’t know how. He had never, to her knowledge, offered to teach anyone how to play.  
“Are you feeling alright Virgil?” Tintin asked, genuinely concerned that he may be ill.  
“I feel perfectly well Tintin. Now come on, I insist that I teach you how to play.”  
She moved tentatively towards the piano and sat down next to Virgil on the stool, all the time giving him puzzled looks.  
“What’s wrong Tintin? Do you not want to learn?” Virgil asked with a laugh.  
“No I would love to. I’m just wondering why you suddenly want to teach me,” Tintin replied.  
“I just decided recently that it was about time I offered to teach you.”  
And with that slightly enigmatic statement Virgil started teaching Tintin how to play his beloved piano. He started by showing her how to hold her hands properly, telling her off for tensing up when he suddenly took her hand in his without warning. He then went on to talk her through a few basic notes and chords. She was picking it up really quickly and he seemed happy with what she was remembering. A couple of hours flew past and soon Tintin was able to play most of the intro and chorus to her most recent favourite song.  
“You’re a natural Tintin!” Virgil exclaimed when she was able to play through the first half of the song without stopping or making any mistakes.  
“Well you are a very good teacher Virgil,” she replied with a blush at his enthusiastic compliment, “I’m glad you suggested this.”  
They continued to practice for another hour and Tintin was eventually able to play through the whole song without mistake.  
“You’re doing brilliantly Tintin. Maybe this year you could play the carols on Christmas day!”  
“I don’t think I’m quite up to that just yet Virgil. Maybe we should stick to you playing and me listening with everyone else,” finally, thought Tintin, an opportunity to mention Penelope, “have you heard that Lady Penelope and Parker aren’t coming this year?”  
As with Scott, she studied his face for any reactions, however small.  
“Are they not? Oh that’s a shame, although I don’t think I’ll necessarily miss Parker’s rendition of ‘We Three Kings’ after one too many brandy’s!”  
Tintin frowned slightly; there had been no obvious reaction to the news of Penelope’s absence at Christmas. It was the same situation as Scott, he didn’t know Penelope wasn’t coming but also didn’t seem usually upset about her not being there. Maybe he also had no plans for Penelope and mistletoe.  
“Well thank you for teaching me to play that song Virgil,” Tintin stood up and moved slightly so she was standing beside rather than at the piano.  
“You should keep practicing it Tintin, you’re a natural,” Virgil said sincerely, “I think you’re wonderful.”  
Tintin blinked at that last statement, “erm, thank you. I’ll, err; definitely try to find the time to practice.”   
“Brilliant!” Virgil exclaimed, “what are you going to do with the rest of your day?”  
Tintin started wandering to the door, lost in thought, “err, I think I may make a cake,” and with that she walked out of the lounge and towards the kitchen.  
What is going on? Tintin thought, first Scott behaves oddly towards her and now Virgil is as well.  
There was something deeper going on and Tintin didn’t have a clue what it was.


	5. Chapter 5

Tintin sat at a stool by the countertop in the kitchen with her chin resting on her right hand. The cake was in the oven and whilst she was waiting for it to bake she was thinking.  
What is going on? Scott and Virgil were both acting strangely and there seemed to be no reason for it. She wondered if something had happened on the rescue yesterday that may account for this change as she had only noticed a change in their behaviour today, but nothing came to mind. From what she had heard at the debrief it was a relatively simple rescue (well as simple as a rescue involving International Rescue ever was) and nothing had gone wrong. Maybe she should watch them both more closely and see if the strange behaviour continued.  
The oven timer beeped and as Tintin moved towards the oven with the oven gloves she heard footsteps in the corridor outside the kitchen. It’s probably Alan, thought Tintin. He’s smelt the cake and come to claim it as his own, she laughed to herself.  
But it wasn’t Alan it was Gordon.  
“Hey Tintin, what are you up to?” he asked just as Tintin was placing the cake onto a cooling rack.  
“Gordon you’re losing your touch!”  
“What do you mean?”  
“You didn’t even make me slightly jump when you came in. I heard your footsteps and everything!”  
“I wasn’t trying to scare you Tintin.”  
“What are you on about? You’re always trying to scare me. You love scaring me and making me jump. You told me once it was one of your favourite past times! The only time you don’t try and scare me is on a rescue.”  
“What can I say? I’m not trying to scare you today. I just thought I’d see what you were up to and if you wanted company.”  
Tintin frowned, he sounded sincere but she had fallen for this before.  
“Hmm, I don’t buy it. You know that Alan mentioned to me that the two of you were planning something for later? So whatever it is I’ll know its coming.”  
“Yes I know Alan mentioned to you that we had something planned. In fact it was my idea. I thought you might like to be involved with the execution of this one!” Gordon replied looking entirely too genuine for Tintin’s liking.  
Oh for heaven’s sake, thought Tintin, not another one! This is just too ridiculous for words. The only one not acting strangely so far is Alan. I’m getting fed up of this.  
“What is going on Gordon?” Tintin asked, unable to keep the exasperation out of her voice, “you never ask me to be involved in your pranks. In fact you get annoyed when Alan asks me to be involved. It’s one of the many reasons why I refuse to take part. So what’s different now? Seriously, what is going on?”  
“Nothing’s going on Tintin. Honestly. I just came to the conclusion that I’ve been unduly harsh in my attitude towards you in the past, with all the scaring and pranks. I just thought to make it up with you by offering you a role in my latest master plan!”  
Tintin frowned deeper. No, she thought to herself, still weird behaviour from Gordon, this is not normal. What is going on with the Tracy brothers?  
“Well, thank you for your kind invitation, but I’m going to say what I said to Alan. I really don’t wish to be fired by your father because of a prank gone wrong.”  
“Dad wouldn’t fire you,” Gordon replied, echoing Alan’s words from earlier, “so what are you up to?”  
“Well I’m waiting for that cake to cool,” replied Tintin indicating the cake on the rack, “and whilst I’m waiting I’m going to make the butter cream to go in the middle.”  
“Do you mind if I stay and keep you company?”  
“You mean do I mind if you lick the bowl out after I’m finished.”  
“Am I that predictable?”  
“No but you are the brother of Alan who does it all the time.”  
“Fair enough, so can I stay?”  
“I suppose so but any scaring me when I’m measuring out the icing sugar and you’re cleaning up the mess!”  
Gordon laughed and Tintin walked to the cupboard to retrieve the icing sugar.  
“What’s that package in there Tintin?” asked Gordon, who was looking in the cupboard Tintin had opened.  
“Oh that’s the Christmas cake.”  
“I hate Christmas cake,” said Gordon pulling a face.  
“I love Christmas cake, its lovely,” replied Tintin as she laughed at the face Gordon was pulling.  
“I prefer Christmas pudding.”  
“They are the same thing!”  
“They most certainly are not! Christmas cake is heavy and dry, whereas Christmas pudding is moist and just brilliant!” Tintin laughed at look of joy that was on Gordon’s face as he thought about Christmas pudding.  
The conversation was reminding her of a similar one she had had with Penelope last year. Maybe this could be used to move this conversation to Penelope’s absence this Christmas and she could work out if it was Gordon who had ordered the mistletoe.  
“Well I only know one other person who thinks the same way as you but unfortunately they are not coming this year.”  
“Who are you talking about?”  
“Lady Penelope thinks the same way about Christmas cake as you but she isn’t coming this year,” nice one Tintin, she thought to herself, that was seamless.  
“Is she not? That’s a shame but it does mean more Christmas pudding for me, which is a very good thing! Now are you finished with that cake so I can eat the remaining butter cream?”  
“Sure but don’t eat too much it’s a bit sickly in large quantities.”  
“I’ll be fine.”  
“I’ll remind you of that when you feel sick later,” Tintin replied as she started tidying up.  
“You sure you don’t want in on my master prank plan?” Gordon asked as he started scrapping butter cream off the side of the bowl Tintin had just handed to him.  
No, Tintin thought, I don’t want to be involved in a master prank plan but I do want to know why you suddenly want me to be involved.   
There has also been no unusual reaction from Gordon about Penelope, just as there had been no unusual reaction from Scott and Virgil. But, thought Tintin, Gordon was also behaving differently towards her, just as Scott and Virgil were.  
She was beginning to think that maybe the mistletoe was a red herring and the real mystery was something all together deeper and bigger than she had first suspected.  
“No Gordon I really don’t want to be involved in your master plan.”


	6. Chapter 6

A couple of days later Tintin was sat at her desk in the laboratory, in front of her were some plans Brains had given her to look over and see if she could think of any improvements that could be included. She was struggling to concentrate. Thought and theories on the unusual behaviour of Scott, Virgil and Gordon were spiralling around her mind and it seemed she was unable to stop them.  
As she stared, unseeing at the plans in front of her, she nearly missed the flashing notice on her computer indicating that she was receiving a video call.  
Once she had seen the notification she blinked out of her thoughts and theories and looked more closely at the screen to see who was calling. It was John from Thunderbird 5.  
“Hi John, is everything ok?” Tintin asked once she had accepted the call, fully expecting him to report an error.  
“Hey Tintin, no everything is fine. I just thought I’d call down to see what’s happening on planet Earth.”  
“Oh, did you call the wrong videophone? Did you mean to call your father?”  
“No, I meant to call you. I know you are usually at your desk this time of the day and I thought I’d call to say hi and see how you were.”  
“Ok,” Tintin replied, he’s never done that before she thought.  
The thing that slightly shocked Tintin was that she wasn’t surprised he was acting differently. In a way, after the last few days she was expecting it. Most of his brothers are acting strangely so why not John as well! Yesterday, after her conversation with Gordon in the kitchen the day before that, she had decided to just observe them rather than challenge them hoping she would gain more insight into whatever it was that was happening. So far she had nothing.  
“So, hi, how are you?” John asked.  
“I’m ok,” Tintin replied, well I think I am, she thought, “I’m just going over some plans for Brains.”  
“Oh, brilliant, what’s it for?”  
“A new upgrade for Thunderbird 4. Nothing special, just something that hopefully may increase its speed without increasing fuel consumption.”  
“Sounds good, do you think Brains’ plans will work?”  
“It looks good. I’ve come up with a couple of add-ons which will hopefully make the upgrading process a bit simpler with any luck. How’s everything up there?”  
“Everything’s good, a bit quiet but that’s a good thing. I’ve been studying a thought to be empty area of space in the hope of finding something new.”  
“Have you found anything?”  
“No, not yet, but its early days. I may find something I may not, half the fun is looking for it!”  
Tintin laughed at the last comment. John had never really shared much of his life with her before. He had never discussed any of the work he did up in Thunderbird 5 that wasn’t directly linked with International Rescue. She wondered why he was now.  
“John can I ask you a slightly unusual question?”  
“Sure, ask away.”  
“Can you call people up there? I mean on a telephone not on a videophone.”  
“You mean can I call someone’s cell phone?”  
“Yes.”  
“No I can’t, not from up here they don’t work in space. The videophone only works because it is a video link through to the island rather than a traditional phone call. Why do you ask?”  
“Oh it’s just something I’ve always wondered about but never asked,” so it definitely wasn’t John who ordered the mistletoe but why was he acting oddly.   
“How are preparations for Christmas going?” John asked her.  
“Good, yeah, everything is ordered,” plus extra I didn’t order, she thought to herself, “just waiting for delivery. I have noticed if anyone is panicking about their shopping yet but there is usually one who runs off to the main land every year on Christmas Eve!”  
“Who was it last year again?” John laughed.  
“Virgil, he had got caught up composing a new piece of Christmas music and hadn’t realised how near it had got to Christmas!”  
“Yes I remember now.”  
“It’s a shame you can’t come down for Christmas. I always think it must be very lonely up there on your own. I know Alan finds it lonely, he’s always calling me when he’s up there because he’s bored!”  
“It’s not too bad for me. I enjoy the quietness and Christmas up here is not ideal but the video link is always open so I get to see everyone and talk to all of you. Plus when my presents came up with the last supplies I realised I’m probably going to spend all day opening them!”  
“Yes, your Grandmother has gone slightly overboard for you as she felt bad that you weren’t going to be here.”  
“It’s going to be a quieter Christmas for you down there what with Penelope not coming either,” John stated.  
“How did you know she wasn’t coming?” Tintin was surprised to hear that he already knew.  
“She told us.”  
“Us? You mean the others knew she’s not coming as well?”  
“Yeah, she was involved in a rescue just over a week ago. The one before that last one if I remember rightly,” that was two days before Tintin had received the email and likely around the time the additional order was placed.  
“Yes I remember she was involved with that one as it was near where she was on holiday.”  
“Yes that’s right. Well after everything was sorted out Scott, Virgil, Gordon and Alan were chatting to her about her holiday and the subject of Christmas came up and she informed them that she wasn’t able to come to the island this year. I heard over the radio.”  
“That’s odd, when I’ve mentioned her not coming to Scott, Virgil and Gordon they didn’t seem to know anything about it.”  
“Oh you know what they are like. It’s in one ear and out the other!”  
“You do have a point there!”  
“Anyway Tintin I’d better let you get back to your plans. It’s been nice talking to you. Maybe I could call you again?”  
“Yes, it’s been nice John and it would be lovely to talk to you again soon. Thank you for calling me.”  
“No worries. Take care Tintin and stay out of trouble!”  
“I don’t think you have to worry about that I’m not one of you brothers!”  
John laughed, waved and disconnected the call.  
Tintin sat back in her chair and let out a large breath of air. Wow, that was a lot of information to take in. If what John said was true, and why would he lie, it made no sense, then it meant that on or near the day that the mistletoe was ordered all the Tracy brothers knew that Penelope wasn’t coming to the island. This must mean that none of them had ordered it for Penelope as they would know that it was a pointless thing to do as she wasn’t coming for Christmas.   
Tintin was now left with just one question.   
Who was the mistletoe intended for?   
“I have a worrying feeling that the answer to that question is me!” Tintin whispered to herself.


	7. Chapter 7

Tintin sat on the sand of one of the many beaches that Tracy Island had and watched the waves roll in and out. She had been there for at least an hour maybe even two. She had excused herself after lunch and come down to the beach to think over everything that she had discovered through The Mystery of the Mistletoe, as she had come to refer to it.  
So it didn’t look as if it was intended for Lady Penelope. John had informed her that not only did he know that Penelope wasn’t coming for Christmas, but that all the other Tracy brothers also knew and had known just before the mistletoe was ordered. Tintin couldn’t see any reason why any of them would order it for Penelope if they knew she wasn’t coming. So it must be intended for someone else and considering that the only other woman on the island that wasn’t related to the Tracy brothers was Tintin herself she was left with only one conclusion.  
I am the intended target for the mistletoe.  
But the question still remained who ordered the mistletoe?  
Tintin wasn’t sure and was also feeling uneasy about the whole thing. When she had believed that it was Penelope the mistletoe was for she had found it compelling to find out who had ordered it. Now she knew that she was the intended target she wasn’t sure she found it as much fun as she had before. She had the overwhelming urge to hide until the whole thing went away. Many people would say she was crazy for not being excited about the prospect of any one of the famous Tracy brothers wanting to kiss her. But Tintin’s main concern was which one?  
As she was thinking over this question her thoughts were interrupted by the feeling of a presence approaching her. She looked round and smiled involuntarily when she saw that it was Alan who was walking towards her.  
“Hey Tintin, so this is where your hiding,” Alan stated as he threw himself down on the sand next to her and flashed her a grin.  
“I’m not hiding,” laughed Tintin as her heart did that weird fluttery thing it did whenever Alan grinned at her, “I’m just watching the ocean.  
“Well I know Gordon go on about how cool the ocean is and how much there is to see in it but I prefer space myself or a race track.”  
“I like watching and listening to the waves. They are very calming and help me think.”  
“What are you thinking about?” Alan asked.  
“Oh this and that,” Tintin lied, “the year is coming to an end. I always find myself thinking about what I’ve achieved and what I’ve learnt during the year on the run up to Christmas.”  
“And what have you done this year?” Alan asked with a smile.  
“Well it’s been another successful year with International Rescue,” Alan nodded at this and Tintin continued, “all of you are still alive, which is a miracle in itself! We’ve saved many lives, well you and the others have.”  
“You have as well Tintin,” Alan responded, “if it wasn’t for you and Brains behind the action keeping everything in working order and inventing new and wonderful ways to rescue people we wouldn’t save as many as we do. So I think you should add that to your achievement list in big bold letters!”  
Tintin laughed, “thank you Alan that’s very sweet. You always know have to make me feel better.”  
“Well I should think I should! You’re my best friend. I should take care of you.”  
“I’m your best friend? What about your brothers?”  
“Well they are good friends but you know how crazy they drive me when they treat me like I’m still a kid. You don’t do that.”  
“That’s probably because I’m younger than you!” answered Tintin with a grin.  
“Exactly, I’m older than you by about four months?” Tintin nodded, “so am I your best friend?”  
“Yeah you are. You and Penelope are. Because let’s face it you are slightly useless when it comes to conversations about make-up and clothes!”  
“Well I think you look good in anything and you don’t need make-up, so yeah I guess I am useless in that respect. What do you need to feel better about?”  
“What do you mean?”  
“You said before that I always know how to make you feel better. What do you need to feel better about?”  
“Oh nothing serious.”  
Alan raised his eyebrows, “what’s up Tintin?”  
“Nothing it’s just. Alan, on the last rescue did anything out of the ordinary happen?”  
“On the last rescue? No nothing out of the ordinary. Why do you ask?”  
“There wasn’t anyone who looked like me or who had the same name or anything?”  
“No I think we would have told you if we had met anyone who looked like you and would have defiantly mentioned if we had met someone with your name. After all it is an unusual one! Why are you asking?”  
“The others are acting a bit differently towards me since the rescue. I just wondered if something had happened to cause that,” because if it isn’t that thought Tintin, then what else could it be?  
“How are they acting differently? Are they being mean?” Tintin could hear the annoyance in Alan’s voice.  
“No, no they are being ok with me, just a bit more friendly if anything. It’s just a bit odd. My relationship with all of them hasn’t changed but they seem more attentive, if that’s the right word.”  
Alan frowned, “do you want me to have a word with them?”  
“No everything is fine. I’m probably just reading too much into it. It doesn’t matter.”  
“Hmm, ok if you say its ok then its ok,” replied Alan, still frowning, “are you going to see Penelope before Christmas? So you can talk about make-up and shoes?”  
Tintin laughed, “Maybe. I wasn’t planning to but since I found out she’s not coming this year I may see if I’m able to visit her so I can at least give her Christmas present to her. It’s just whether I have time or not.”  
“Talk to dad. I’m sure he’ll let you go. He knows how hard you work and will probably send you with his present for Penelope too!”  
“Yeah, I think I will ask him if I can go. It would be nice to see Penelope for a couple of days,” and ask her opinion of the mystery of the mistletoe and the four oddly acting Tracy boys, Tintin thought.  
“Brilliant! Now I’ve had all I can take of watching the ocean, Gordon can keep it! What do you say we go and do something fun?”  
“What did you have in mind?”  
“Well we could go for a walk around the island. We could play tennis. We could watch a film. I could watch while you make another cake! Anything you want.”  
“A film sounds good. With lots of popcorn!”  
“You read my mind!” Alan jumped up from the sand and held his hand out towards Tintin, “come on let’s go!”  
Tintin grabbed his hand and let him pull her up from that sand. Alan crooked his elbow at her, she laughed and took his arm and they set off towards the house.  
As they walked and argued over which film to watch, Tintin breathed a silent sigh of relief that Alan was acting normally. He was right they were best friends and he meant the world to her. She didn’t know what she would do if he had also started acting differently towards her.


	8. Chapter 8

Last night Tintin had been distracted from the mistletoe mystery long enough to be able to enjoy watching a film with Alan.   
They had watched an action-comedy which was a compromise between them and as usually happened when watching a film with Alan, Tintin fell asleep on his shoulder three quarters of the way through the movie and completely missed the ending. Normally he would then wake her up as the credits were rolling and she would ask him how it had ended. He would then make up such a completely outrageous ending that would never be the truth that Tintin would laugh so much at his ending that she never did find out what actually happened.  
Last night, however, Tintin woke up to find Alan carrying her out of the film room.  
“What’s going on? Where are you taking me?” she had demanded still groggy from sleep.  
“Relax Tintin. I’m just taking you to your room. You fell asleep on me again,” Alan had replied but had made no move to put her down and continued towards her room.  
Tintin relaxed into Alan’s chest and stopped fidgeting, “sorry I fell asleep.”  
“That’s alright I’m used to it,” Alan had reached her door and pressed the button for the door.  
“What happened at the end?” Tintin asked as she closed her eyes.  
“They all lived happily ever after,” Alan walked into her room and placed her down on her bed.  
“Hmm, not your best ending Alan,” he covered her with her blanket.  
“I’ll think up a better one tomorrow. Good night Tintin.”  
“Good night Alan and thank you.”  
“What for?”  
“For not behaving weirdly,” with that Tintin fell asleep and Alan left the room.  
When she had woken up in the morning it had taken her a couple of minutes to remember why she was still wearing her clothes from the night before. Then it dawned on her and she smiled and wondered what ending Alan would come up with to tell her.  
After a quick shower she turned on her computer and checked her emails.  
Dear Miss Kyrano,  
Your order has been dispatched by special courier and should be with you today. The pilot of the plane carrying your order will contact your residence and request landing permission when they are approaching your island. Please inform the pilot of any specialist landing requirements when contacted.  
Merry Christmas  
Dave from the orders department  
A plan was forming in Tintin’s mind. If the mistletoe was coming today I can keep an eye on it and see who takes it or shows special interest in it. Then I’ll know who ordered it she thought to herself.  
After informing Mr Tracy about the expected arrival, Tintin headed to the laboratory and worked for a couple of hours on some more plans that Brains had given her to look over.  
Whilst she was going over one plan for an upgrade on a component for Thunderbird two a call came in from the lounge.  
“Hello Tintin. Your order will be here in about five to ten minutes,” informed Mr Tracy.  
“Thank you Mr Tracy. I’ll head down to the runway now to meet the pilot and unload the order,” Tintin replied whilst packing up the plans she had been working on.  
“I’ll send the boys down to give you a hand.”  
“Thank you Mr Tracy. That would be very helpful.”  
Tintin popped her head into the room Brains was working in.  
“Brains, the Christmas order is here so I’m just going to sort it out and then I’ll be back.”  
Brains didn’t even look up from the computer screen, “ok T-Tintin,” he replied absentmindedly.  
Tintin gathered all the paper work she needed for the order and headed down to the hangar at the end of the runway. As she neared she saw that Alan, Scott, Virgil and Alan were already waiting for her along with her father who she was surprised to see.  
“Father what are you doing here?” she asked.  
“I overheard Mr Tracy informing you of the arrival of the Christmas order and I thought I could come and help with its unloading,” her father told her, “at the very least I can direct where the food needs to go once unloaded.”  
“Thank you father, but if you feel tired at any point promise me you will go and rest,” Tintin was very aware that her father wasn’t getting any younger and the occasional dizzy spells he had were a large cause for concern with his daughter.  
“I promise Tintin.”  
They all then went outside to wait for the courier. Scott was the first to spot him and the all watched at the pilot skilfully landed on the runway on Tracy Island.  
Tintin waited for the pilot to cut the plane’s engine and open the doors to the cargo hold. As she approached the plane and its pilot she heard one of the boys watches beep, indicating they were receiving a call. She wasn’t sure which one it was but she knew that none of them would allow themselves to be seen having a conversation with his watch.  
“Miss Kyrano?” the pilot asked Tintin.  
“Yes that’s me,” replied Tintin.  
“Great just check the order numbers and sign at the bottom,” he handed her a hand held computer and a stylus pen.  
Tintin checked the order numbers against her own copy of the order and once she was satisfied they matched she signed in the box at the end of the screen.  
“Do you need any help moving all this?” the pilot asked indicating the palette loaded with multiple boxes that his co-pilot had just removed from the cargo hold and was pushing it towards the hangar where Scott and Virgil took over.  
“No its ok I have plenty of help, but thank you,” Tintin looked again towards the entrance of the hangar and saw Alan jogging towards her.  
“Hey,” he said slightly out of breath, “Brains needs you in the lab.”  
Tintin turned to check that the pilot and co-pilot were not eavesdropping on their conversation but they were already climbing back into their plane and preparing to take off again.   
Tintin and Alan walked back to the hangar door quickly as the courier’s plane took off. Once the noise of the engine faded away Tintin turned to Alan.  
“What did you say about Brains?”  
“He called me just after the plane landed and said that he needed your help with something and to ask you if you could come as soon as you could. He didn’t say what it was about.”  
“You better go and help him if he needs you Tintin,” said Scott, they had reached the end of the runway and Scott had overheard the end of their conversation.  
“Yes I suppose I better had,” Tintin replied but looked towards the palette.  
Almost as if he read her mind Alan said, “Don’t worry Tintin we’ll sort all this out and put it in the right places.”  
“Well if you just move most of it to the lounge and just put the food away in the kitchen. Then I can come and sort out where everything goes once I’ve helped Brains. Father, can you show them where everything goes in the kitchen?”  
“Of course Tintin. Now you had better go and help Brains with whatever it is he needs you for.”  
“Yes, I’m on my way. Thank you for moving everything. Hopefully I’ll be back soon.”  
As Tintin walked to the laboratory she hoped that everything was ok with Brains. He very rarely needed her urgently and she was at a loss as to what it could be.   
She also felt bad leaving all the moving of the Christmas order to the others. She hoped her father wasn’t doing too much; hopefully the others will stop him she thought as she neared the lab.  
When she walked into the lab Brains was still staring intently at his computer screen, much as he had been when she left him twenty minutes earlier.  
“Brains? You needed me?” Tintin asked as she approached the desk.  
“Ahh, yes T-Tintin, c-could you look o-over these c-calculations for me please? There is s-something wrong b-but I can’t f-figure out what.”  
Tintin moved round the desk as sat in the chair Brains had just vacated. On the computer screen were the plans for a new piece of rescue equipment Brains had been working on for months. It was destined to reside in Thunderbird two’s pod 7, which was currently under construction.  
“Which bit would you like me to check Brains?”  
“A-All of it p-please Tintin.”  
“All of it?” well this isn’t going to be a ten minute job like she had thought it might be when Brains had asked her to check his calculations. This was going to take much longer than ten minutes.  
An hour and twenty minutes later Tintin had meticulously checked every calculation in Brains’ plans and could find nothing wrong.  
“Everything looks ok to me Brains. I can’t see any obvious errors.”  
“I-I was sure t-there was something a-amiss.”  
“Honestly, everything looks fine. All the calculations work and the plans look great. Please don’t throw all this away and start again. You’ve been working on this for months,” it wasn’t unheard of for Brains to do this. There had been numerous designs for each of the Thunderbirds which had worked just fine but Brains had scrapped them all because of imagined flaws.  
“Maybe you’re r-right. I could always build a p-prototype and thoroughly t-test it before it goes out on an actual r-rescue?”  
“Yes, that would be a good plan. I’ll help you built and test it.”  
“Thank you T-Tintin that will be most h-helpful.”  
“That’s ok Brains. Do you need me to do anything else?”  
“N-No Tintin. E-Everything should be fine n-now.”  
“Ok well let me know if you need me for anything else.”  
Tintin walked out of the laboratory and headed for the main part of the house. She had thought of going to the lounge and starting on the unpacking of the order but then she thought maybe she should check on her father so she headed for the kitchen instead where she found him with Grandma Tracy.  
“Oh hey Tintin, what can we help you with?” asked Grandma.  
“I just wanted to check that all the food for Christmas had been delivered correctly Mrs Tracy.”  
“Oh yes dear, everything has been delivered and put away. Mind you I had to chase a couple of my grandsons away from the chocolates and mince pies!”  
Tintin laughed and turned to her father, “was everything ok father? You didn’t overtire yourself?”  
“No Tintin,” Kyrano answered, “none of them would let me carry anything of large weigh, especially Alan.”  
“Good. Well I’m going to head to the lounge to sort through everything else that was delivered,” and hopefully discover who ordered the mistletoe thought Tintin as she left the room.  
As she walked to the lounge she thought through what she could do when she got to the mistletoe to find out who had ordered it. Maybe she could ask them all outright who had ordered it, or she could pretend it was delivered my mistake and make like she was going to send it back and see if she got any reaction from that. Maybe she could hide it and see who looked like they were searching for something. She really wasn’t sure and probably wouldn’t be until she was in the situation itself.  
However, as she walked into the lounge the sight she saw was not the one she was expecting. She had been expecting to see several large unopened boxes. What she saw instead was several opened boxes and a Christmas tree in its stand with Alan standing next to it wearing several strands of tinsel as a scarf!  
“Hey Tintin, are you finished with whatever Brains wanted?” asked Alan.  
“Yes everything is fine now. What are you doing? I said I’d sort all this out when I was done.”  
“Well we carried everything upstairs once we were done with all the kitchen stuff and the I popped my head into the lab but you both were so hard at work you didn’t notice me so I came back. Then we thought we’d help you out by doing the unpacking and starting the decorating. Scott’s moving the furniture to make room for the tree, Virgil’s trying to fix the lights, Gordon’s sticking the snowflake shapes on the windows and I’m sorting out the tinsel as you can see.”  
“Brilliant, that’s great thank you,” Tintin wasn’t sure what to say. She was glad they had made a start on things after all it did make thing easier. But she was a bit miffed that her plan had gone awry.  
“Do you want to help me decorate the tree?” Alan asked.  
“Yeah that would be nice,” her heart did the weird fluttery thing again when he grinned at her response, “err, did you get a delivery note on one of the boxes?”  
“Yes there was one. We ticked everything off as we came to it to check we had everything. It should be over there,” Alan pointed towards his father’s desk where Tintin found the delivery note.  
All the items had various different ticks next to it, indicating that several people had obviously ticked off various items as and when they had come to them. Tintin scanned down to the end of the page and yes, mistletoe was on the list and it had a tick next to it.   
Tintin looked up and searched the room for it but couldn’t see anything. She had a quick look in each box which proved to all be empty. There was no sign of the mistletoe at all.  
Tintin had been absent for at least an hour and a half. Anyone could have come by whilst the boxes were being unpacked and taken it.  
Tintin suddenly realised that not only had someone on the island ordered mistletoe that was very likely intended for her but that mistletoe was now on the island. She didn’t know where it was and she still had no idea who had ordered it.


	9. Chapter 9

It was beginning to look a lot like Christmas on Tracy Island. The decorations were up and the tree sparkled with fairy lights and tinsel. The smell of Christmas spices wafted through the house as Kyrano and Grandma cooked up a storm in preparation for the big day.  
It was all very magical, but Tintin couldn’t ignore the uneasy feeling in her heart that the mystery of the mistletoe had given her.  
It had been three days since it had arrived on the island and she hadn’t slept a wink of sleep since. The worrying was sapping any trace of festive spirit she had within her. It also wasn’t helping that Scott was still being overly helpful, John was still calling her, Virgil was still insisting on teaching her the piano and Gordon was still trying to involve her in his pranks.  
She wasn’t sure what she should do next but did know someone who might.   
“Mr Tracy may I ask you something?”  
Jeff Tracy looked up from his desk to the girl standing in front of it.  
“Of course Tintin, what would you like to ask?”  
“I know it’s only a week before Christmas but I was wondering if I could have a few days off to go and visit Lady Penelope in England.”  
“You are looking very tired Tintin is everything ok?”  
“I’m ok Mr Tracy. I think I’ve just overtired myself and I think a few days rest will help.”  
“Yes I think you’re right. Of course you may have a few days off to go and seen Penny. Have you thought of how you would get there?”  
“I thought I’d try and see what time the next flight to London was from the nearest airport to the island.”  
“Would you like me to ask Scott if he could take you in Thunderbird 1? You would be there in a matter of hours and he can come and pick you up a few days later.”  
“Are you sure Mr Tracy? Thunderbird 1 may be seen by Penelope’s neighbours and her cover may be in jeopardy.”  
“Creighton-Ward manor is very secluded and I doubt Penny’s neighbours will notice anything amiss.”  
“Then as long as you’re sure, going in Thunderbird 1 sounds great. Thank you Mr Tracy.”  
“Don’t worry about it Tintin. Now when is she expecting you?”  
“I emailed her this morning and she said anytime until the 23rd when she goes to her relatives for Christmas.”  
“Ok, in that case would you like to go this afternoon and then Scott can come and collect you on the morning of the 23rd?”  
“That would be wonderful. Thank you so much.”  
“That’s ok Tintin, now you better go and pack. You may as well inform everyone you’re going so they can give you their presents for Penny and Parker.”  
“I will do Mr Tracy. I’ll go and double check that Brains is ok with me going and then I’ll go and pack.”  
“I’ll let Penny know when to expect you and inform Scott that he is taking you.”  
“Thank you again Mr Tracy,” Tintin replied as she moved towards the door.  
A few hours later Tintin was sat in the passenger seat of Thunderbird 1 surrounded by her luggage and bags of presents. The last three sleepless nights caught up with Tintin and not long after Scott had switched to horizontal flight and she fell asleep. She only woke up when they were landing in the grounds of Creighton-Ward manor.  
Lady Penelope greeted Tintin with a hug and a look of concern. Scott helped Parker unload Tintin’s bags.  
After waving Scott off in Thunderbird 1, Tintin shivered and clutched her coat closer to her body.  
“I’ve been living on a tropical island for too long and forgotten how cold it gets here in winter,” she laughed.  
“Don’t worry Tintin, we’ll get you inside next to the fire with a nice hot cup of tea,” Penelope replied, “Parker if you place Tintin’s bags into her room and the presents under the tree, then you may serve the tea.”  
“Very good m’lady.”  
Soon Tintin was sat next to a large fire with a steaming cup of tea next to her.  
“Now Tintin,” began Penelope after she had taken a sip of tea, “tell me what is wrong.”  
“Am I that bad?” Tintin asked.  
“Yes, you are not your usual happy self. So tell me what’s praying on your mind.”  
So Tintin told her. She poured out everything about the mistletoe, the changing behaviour, everything. She found that once she had started she couldn’t stop telling Penelope everything.  
“And now it’s in the house and I’ve no idea who has it and I don’t know what to do,” she finished.  
Penelope took in everything Tintin had to say and remained silent for half a minute thinking.  
Just as Tintin was beginning to wonder if Penelope had heard anything she had said she asked her a question.  
“Who do you want it to be Tintin?”  
“What do you mean?” Tintin was confused.  
“There are several men on that island, you said it yourself. Out of all of them, if you had your wish, would you want to be under the mistletoe with?”  
“Alan,” Tintin’s mouth snapped shut in shock. Where had that come from?  
“Interesting,” Penelope replied, “why Alan?”  
“I-I,” then realisation hit Tintin, “because I love him.”  
“And all this worry about the mistletoe is because?”  
“Because I want it to be him but I’m worried it’s not. This is escalated by the fact that all the others are acting differently towards me. I’m worried it’s one of them.”  
“I don’t think you have to worry so much about that.”  
“But they are behaving differently towards me.”  
“Yes, but Tintin they all are.”  
“All except Alan, yes.”  
“And there has only been one piece of mistletoe ordered. If they all felt differently for you, you would be inundated with it!”  
“But what if it was ordered by one of the others?”  
“Then when the time comes that they try to use it, you politely and kindly turn them down. They are kind-hearted wonderful men; they will understand that you don’t feel the same way. But I honestly don’t think it will come to that.”  
“How can you be that sure?”  
“Call it a secret agents intuition! Now are you feeling better?”  
“Yes, very much. I can’t believe it has taken me this long to see that I love Alan! And you’re right about the others, I know they won’t make thing awkward if I turn any of them down. I don’t know why I thought they would. Thank you Penelope.”  
“I’m very glad to have helped you with this Tintin. Sometimes I worry about you on that island. Jeff and the boys are very good people and I know Mrs Tracy looks after you but sometimes it’s good to have a female friend of a similar age to talk things over with.”  
“I knew coming to you was the right thing to do.”  
“It certainly was. Now I think over the next few day we need to make sure we have fun, get you properly rested and recovered and send you back to Tracy Island looking so stunningly beautiful that Alan won’t know what’s hit him!”  
And that’s exactly what they did.  
A few days later Tintin’s visit was over and they were waiting for Thunderbird 1 to come and collect her.  
“Thank you again Penelope, from the bottom of my heart.”  
“It has been wonderful to see you and help you Tintin. I wish I was coming for Christmas this year but there is always next Christmas and I am hoping to visit in the New Year.”  
As they had been chatting Thunderbird 1 had arrived and landed. Tintin’s heart fluttered when she saw Alan climbing out and walking towards them.  
“Alan does Scott know you’re here with Thunderbird 1?” Tintin asked him as he came closer to them.  
“Yes he does,” he laughed, “dad let me come and pick you up as it would be good practice for me piloting her.”  
“Well very well done with the landing, it was textbook!”  
“Thank you! Are you ready to come home?”  
“Yes I am, very much indeed,” now Penelope had eased her worries about the mistletoe Tintin was ready to properly begin celebrating Christmas.  
She would decide what to do about her feelings for Alan once Christmas was over.


	10. Chapter 10

It was Christmas Eve and for the first time in weeks Tintin was able to forget about the mistletoe. Well not entirely but enough so that she could start to enjoy the usual Christmas traditions present every year on Tracy Island.  
As usual her father and Grandma were busy cooking in the kitchen, preparing the mountains of food required for the celebration of Christmas.   
This year it had been Gordon who had jetted off to the main land in a last minute present buying panic. Scott owed Virgil $20 and Mr Tracy owed his mother $50.  
Tintin spent the whole of the afternoon sat in her room as she usually did on Christmas Eve due to another Tracy Island Christmas tradition. One by one each inhabitant on the island came to her door with large carrier bags of presents and asked her to wrap each one. It happened every year and every year when presents were handed out Tintin was congratulated on her wrapping skills. The only other person who didn’t ask her to wrap their presents for them was Grandma and Tintin was well aware that Mrs Tracy was very probably sat in her own room wrapping everyone else’s presents for Tintin!  
Soon all the presents were wrapped and placed under the large tree, decorated by Tintin and Alan, in the lounge. Kyrano and Grandma had finished their food preparations and everyone was starting to feel relaxed and joyful. Even Gordon had lost the slightly bewildered panicked look he had returned with after shopping.  
The Christmas Eve evening meal on Tracy Island was always cooked by Tintin. It was an opportunity for her father and Grandma to have a rest before the big day and Tintin always enjoyed it. She particularly enjoyed making a meal that had nothing to do with Christmas. Something that they would all enjoy before they became overwhelmed by seasonal food.  
This year Tintin had decided to make spaghetti bolognaise and it wasn’t entirely accidental that she had chosen Alan’s favourite meal.  
She was chopping onions and crying because of them, when Scott walked into the kitchen.  
“Tintin are you alright?” he asked alarmed to find tears streaming down her face.  
“Yes Scott I’m fine, it’s just the onions I’m chopping,” as soon as she had finished the last onion she went to the sink and washed her hands and her face, “there, that’s better.”  
“I was worried for a moment there.”  
“What were you worried about?” Tintin asked confused.  
“I was worried that you were upset. It’s not every day I walk into the kitchen and find you crying.”  
“No I only tend to cry in the kitchen when I’m cutting onions!”  
“I hope you don’t cry anywhere else on the island.”  
“I do every now and then, but not often. If I do cry it’s usually over very silly things that don’t really need crying over but like I said it’s not that often.”  
“Good I’m glad. I don’t like the idea of you being sad here. I’ve come to realise just how much we depend on you recently. I’ve also realised just how much I take you for granted. I’m really glad you’re here Tintin.”  
“Where is this coming from Scott?” Tintin asked wondering what was going on.  
“It sounds odd but seeing the burn mark on your arm the other day brought it home to me that you do a lot for International Rescue. You risked your life and injured yourself to save those people. Also the way you maintain the machines we use, I’d never realised just how much you do until I saw you dismantle that GPS unit. I realised that without you International Rescue just wouldn’t work as well. So thank you.”  
“I only do what everyone else in this organisation does.”  
“I know but I just want you to realise I appreciate what you do and I’m not going to take you for granted anymore.”  
“I’ve never felt taken for granted but thank you Scott.”  
“You’re very welcome Tintin. Now can I help you with anything?”  
“No not really, everything is in hand. It’s a fairly simple meal and I’ve done it many times on my own, but thank you.”  
“Ok as long as you’re sure, I’ll leave you in peace,” Scott smiled and walked out of the kitchen.  
Once she had put together the meat and the sauce and left it to simmer for a while, Tintin walked out of the kitchen towards the dining room to begin laying the table. But when she got there she realised that Virgil had beaten her to it.  
“I didn’t realise that I would have to fight anyone for the privilege of setting the table!” she laughed.  
“Oh I just thought I’d help out. Plus I always enjoy setting the table for some reason, maybe the artistic temperament!”  
“Maybe. Well thank you, you have saved me one job and for that I am very appreciative!”  
“You’re very welcome. I was going to ask you if you would like to help me with playing the carols tomorrow. I know I joked about it when I started to teach you but you are really good and I can do all the hard bits so you don’t need to worry about that. What do you think?”  
“You really think I’m that good?”  
“Of course you are Tintin! You’re a natural. I’d begun to lose hope of finding anyone on this island who could actually be good at playing the piano.”  
“You mean you’ve tried to teach the others?”  
“Yes of course I have. They are all useless! Even Grandma can’t get her head around it and I thought I’d have more luck with her! I’ve always wanted to pass on my gift with the piano to someone, like my mother did with me, and now I can with you.”  
Tintin felt her eyes welling up for a second time that evening and it had nothing to do with onions.  
“Thank you Virgil. I would love to help you with the carols tomorrow as long as you do what you said and play all the hard bits.”  
“Brilliant and don’t worry you’ll be wonderful and I’ll perform all the complicated parts. Now what are you making for tonight?”  
“Spaghetti bolognaise, why?”  
“I think I’m going to need more napkins!”  
Tintin laughed, left Virgil to find more napkins and walked back to the kitchen to check on the food. Just as she was debating whether to start the pasta Gordon came bounding into the kitchen with a bucket and a grin.  
“Tintin there you are! I need your help.”  
“With what?” she replied looking at the bucket with worry.  
“I need you to get Scott to come in here and open the door as he does.”  
“Why?”  
“Because when he does, the contents of this,” he held up the bucket, “are going to fall on his head.”  
“Gordon I’m trying to cook. I don’t have time to be messing around cleaning up after one of your pranks.”  
“You won’t, it’s only small bits of tinsel and I’ll sweep it up when I’m done,” Tintin looked at him and considered, “please Tintin,” he pleaded.  
“Fine, but if I get into trouble because of you...”  
“You won’t I promise. Now just go and get Scott.”  
Tintin found Scott in the lounge and asked him if he could help her with something in the kitchen. He readily agreed and followed her back there. She felt slightly guilty that she was about to be involved in a prank on him after the lovely things he had said to her earlier but hoped he would forgive her.  
She noticed that Gordon has closed the door enough so that Scott would have to open it but left it open enough so the she could squeeze in easily without moving to door.  
Once she had entered the room she had just enough time to turn around and watch as the bucket of glittery tinsel rained down on Scott’s head. The look of confusion and surprise had her almost doubled over from laughing. She also saw in the corner of her eye Gordon filming the whole thing on his phone.  
“Oh Scott the look on your face was a picture!” Gordon exclaimed once all the tinsel had fallen.  
Scott looked between Gordon and Tintin, who was still laughing, and shook his head.  
“Really Gordon, did you have to corrupt Tintin?”  
“I’m sorry Scott, it was his idea but it was quiet funny!” Tintin replied laughing.  
“Well at least it wasn’t slime this time,” Scott replied turning around, “I’ll leave you to clean up the mess Gordon.”  
Scott left the room and walked back to the lounge. Tintin was sure she heard him mutter.  
“Heaven help up there’s three of them now!”  
Tintin turned to Gordon who had started tidying up the tinsel.  
“That was enormous fun Gordon thank you.”  
“No worries, Alan was right about you.”  
“What do you mean?”  
“Well he’s always saying we should involve you in our pranks and he’s right. It’s fun with you. I don’t know why I haven’t listened to him before now.”  
“Well I have to say it was a lot of fun to be on the other side of one of your pranks.”  
“So does that mean you want to be involved more?”  
“Occasionally, I think it may work better if the others don’t always assume I’m involved. They will be more likely to trust me!”  
“I’d never thought about that. Tintin you’re a pranking genius!”  
“Thank you. Now go, I need to get this finished before Christmas Eve is over!”  
Gordon left with his bucket of tinsel and Tintin finished cooking.  
After the meal everyone complimented Tintin on her cooking and laughed at the video of Scott and the tinsel on Gordon’s phone. It was getting late and one by one everyone was heading to bed.  
Tintin was just finished loading up the dishwasher when her phone beeped. She unlocked it and discovered she had a message.  
Meet me in my room. I have something to give you. Alan x  
Tintin sat down, her heart suddenly beating twice as fast. She looked at the clock, ten to midnight. Maybe all her Christmas wishes were coming true and it was Alan who had ordered the mistletoe. There was only one way to find out.  
She checked that everything was where is should be and everything was tidy in the kitchen and turned off the light.  
She made her way slowly down the corridor to Alan’s room. Taking a deep breath she knocked on the door.  
Alan’s face appeared at the door.  
“Hi,” he grinned, “you can only come in if you close your eyes until I’m ready.”  
“What’s going on?” Tintin didn’t realised it was possible for her heart to beat faster but it was.  
“You’ll see. Now close your eyes and give me your hand.”  
Tintin did both and Alan lead her into his room with her eyes closed. Suddenly he dropped her hand.  
“Alan?!”  
“Don’t open your eyes yet! Keep them closed!”  
She heard some rustling.  
“Seriously Alan, what’s going on?”  
“Just a second,” she heard him take a deep breath, “ok open your eyes.”  
She opened her eyes. Alan’s room was awash with candles, all lit. She could hear light romantic music in the background. She looked up but saw no mistletoe hanging from the ceiling.  
Trying not to feel to disheartened she looked down and nearly fainted when she saw Alan.  
He was knelt on one knee in front of her, clutching a small jewellery box.  
“W-What?” Tintin was speechless.  
“Tintin Kyrano I love you with all my heart. I couldn’t and don’t want to think of a world where you are not in my life. Please make me the happiest man on earth. Will you marry me?”  
Tintin was stunned; of all the thing she thought would happen today this was not it.  
“I think I need to sit down,” she said sinking into nearest chair.  
She looked between at Alan and the box he was holding, “yes, I love you Alan. Of course I’ll marry you!”  
The biggest grin possible appeared on Alan’s face and he sprang forward pulling from behind his back a bunch of mistletoe which he held above their heads as he captured Tintin’s lips in a loving kiss.  
Once they broke apart Alan placed the engagement ring on Tintin’s ring finger and kissed her again.  
“So it was you who ordered the mistletoe,” Tintin said once they had broken apart again and were sat on Alan’s bed.  
“Actually it wasn’t me,” Alan replied looking at the slightly discarded mistletoe.  
“Who was it then?”  
“Your father actually,” Alan laughed at the shocked look on Tintin’s face, “I asked his permission to ask you to marry me about two months ago. When he realised I was planning to ask you on Christmas Eve he ordered it for me. He told me that you have always loved mistletoe and had always found it very romantic. I don’t think he ever intended for you to find out about it until now.”  
“I can’t believe it was my father. I had no idea. So who else knows that you were going to propose to me?”  
“Everyone.”  
“Everyone!?”  
“Yes, well I had to check with my dad as well, he’s over the moon by the way, and I thought I should tell Grandma. I told my brothers on the way home from the last rescue. I just couldn’t help it. I was so excited and wanted their blessing on it. I think that may be why they started acting differently towards you. They’ve starting seeing you more as a sister. I told Brains because I needed him to distract you when the order arrived.”  
“That was the one thing that I didn’t find strange, how odd.”  
“And I have to say that this was almost entirely Lady Penelope’s idea!”  
“What do you mean, this was Penelope’s idea?”  
“Well don’t ask me how but she worked out that I was in love with you and challenged me on it. She told me that if I didn’t do something soon I would lose you and I definitely didn’t want that. She promised me that you loved me back and encouraged me to do all this.”  
“Your father needs to pay her more!”Tintin laughed.  
“Why do you say that?”  
“Because she is a very good secret agent, when I went to see her I told her I loved you and she didn’t let on one bit about what she clearly already knew.”  
“So are you happy with your present?” Alan asked her.  
“Oh I am very happy with my Christmas present!” she replied.  
“Oh this isn’t your Christmas present. That’s wrapped up underneath the tree. This,” he pointed to her ring, “is not just for Christmas but for the rest of our lives.”  
“I love you Alan,” Tintin replied.  
“I love you too Tintin,” he kissed her, “Merry Christmas!”


End file.
